Art of making steel eye-bars



(No Model.) n

R. W. SMITH.

ART OF MAKING vSTEEL BYE BARS.

Patented Apr. 6,1886.

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INVENTUR WITNESSES @,C.

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iran VSrarns ROBERT W. SMITH,

artnr Orricn.

OF TOLEDO, OHIO.

SPECIFICATION forming part of Letters Patent No. 339,492, dated April 6, 1886. Application filed December 30, 1885. Serial No. 187,176. (No model.)

To @ZZ whom t may concern:

Be it known that I, ROBERT W. SMITH, of Toledo, in the county of Lucas and State of Ohio, have invented a certain new and useful Method oi' M-.niufacturing Steel Eye-Bars, of which the following is a specification, refer ence being had to the accompanying drawings, in which- Figure 1 is an edge view of a steel blank bar suitable for making an eye-bar. Fig. 2 is a plan view of the same, with dotted lines at either end to indicate the contour of the linished eye-bar. Fig. 3 is aplan of such a blank bar with a pile upon it at one end suitable for manufacturing an eye-bar in accordance with my invention. Fig. disalongitudinal central section of Fig. 3. lFig. 5 shows a plan view of a complete eye-bar. Fig. 6 is a section of the same on the line 6 6 of Fig. 5, indicating the relations of the different metal parts.

Heretofore the manufacture of steel eye-bars has been practiced as follows:

First, blank bars have been taken and heated at the ends and upset orbunched and forged into shape and bolt-holes formed through them. This is an expensive process,generally requiring several beatings and hammerings, and resulting in injuring the quality of the metal and weakening it so that it is liable to break at the neck, or the place indicated by the line :v in Fig. 5.

The second method practiced has been to roll out steel bars from steel ingots, leaving a large mass of metal at either end, which has afterward been forged into shape and ahole formed through it. This method is liable to the objection that it is expensive, and the metal is also liable to injury,from the fact that repeated beatings are generally required.

It has never been found practicable to make steel eye-bars by either of these methods as strong at their necks as at other portions of the bars, and to accomplish that has long been the problem that has baied stecl-eyebar makers.

In the manufacture of iron eye-bars (which are now of very little use on account of the superior tenacity and desirability of steel in bridge and truss structures, where the greatest strength with the least weight is the desideratum) it has been the practice to take abar of iron and build upon it a suitable pile of scrapiron, then to heat and forge out the end of the' eye-bar in suitable dies to give it the desired shape, and to form a bolt-hole through it; but the iron eye-bars have always in practice been found to be weak at the neck and to be liable to break at that point. Metal-workers have not been able to manufacture a steel eye-bar in this way, and it would be impracticable to do it by the employment of steel only.

The object of my invention is to produce a steel eye-bar with a strength at the neck sufficient to withstand any strain that the body of the bar will withstand, and to avoid the ein pense and other objections mentioned incident to the ordinary manufacture of steel eye-bars, as heretofore practiced.

To this end I combine a small quantity of re-enforce metal with the steel bar in a particular way. I take a steel blank bar, A, of suitable dimensions, (say one by four inches,) such as illustrated in Figs. l and 2, and place upon one end of it a wrought-iron plate, B, (or any other suitable equivalent plate of soft metal or alloy might be used,) say about five-eighths inch thick, and about three inches wider than the steel bar. I then preferably place two small steel re-enforce scraps, C, upon the iron plate on either side. 4These may be dispensed with, or iron scraps may be used; but steel scraps are preferable. I then heat this pile to a proper degree for perfect welding, and place it in dies such as heretofore used in the manufacture of iron eye-bars, and forge it into shape. This can be done,as in the case of iron, with a single heating. The effect is that the iron plate does not embed the steel bar, but spreads over it, and re'enforces it, and unites thoroughly with it. The steel-scrap pieces at the proper points on either side of the bolthole thoroughly unite with the thin iron plate, as indicated in Fig. 6, so thatIobt-ain a practically integral mass of metal. The steel at the neck of the eye-bar, although slightly iattened,is not materially diminished in crosssection by the forging operation, but the iron spreads over it, and unites with it and strengthens it at that point, as well as all around the bolt-hole. The result is, that at a single heating, and without deteriorating or weakening the steel at all, I get with great ICO economy a re-enforced steel eye-bar without the liability to break at the neck heretofore existing, and at the same time without any material increase of the mass of metal employed, such as is appreciable in adding to the expense of the manufacture.

It is impracticable to use a steel plate of proper quality instead of the iron plate employed upon the end of the steel bar, because of the difficulty of Welding steel to steel, and also because a steel plate will not flow or spread out over the surface of the steel bar in the forging process so readily as iron will, but is liable to be embedded somewhat into the neck of the bar and weaken it.

In the manufacture of iron eye-bars the iron pile that is built upon Vthe end of the iron bar does not How over the bar at the neck, as in the case of my steel bar,vbecause the iron bar is as soft as the scrapiron pile upon it. The result is that the bar proper is diminished in cross-section and weakened at the neck in the forging process. In re-enforcing a steel bar with a coat of almost molten iron as I do, however, the result is to keep the strength of the steel at the neck and add to it what strength there is in the iron coating. I thus secure a steel eye-bar by a process of manufacture somewhat similar to and as cheap as that heretofore employed to make iron eye-bars, which is a 3o great practical improvement in making steel eye-bars, both as respects their quality and the economy of their production.

I am aware that it is not new to Weld iron and steel together, or to make a pile of alternate layers of iron and steel and forge them into a mass, and I claim nothing of this sort; but

What I claim, and desire to secure by Letters Patent of the United States, is 4o l. The improved method of manufacturing Steel eye-bars herein described,which consists in applying a re-enforce plate of wrought-iron to the end of a steel bar, heating it toa degree for perfect welding, andthen forging it into form by the use of dies, as set forth.

2. As an improved article of manufacture, a steel eye-bar re-enforced by wrought-iron forged and spread around the neck and bolthole, substantially as set forth. 5o

3. In a steel eye-bar, the combination of the steel bar A, the wrought-iron plate B, and the re-en force scraps C, substantially as set forth.

ROBERT W. SMITH.

Attest: p

E. W. ToLERToN, H. F. SHUROK. 

